It's easy to lead when times are good; in times of plenty. We need leaders most however, when times are hard, resources are scarce and hope is hard to come by.
Leading through crises takes practice and lots of it. As a high school principal, over a period of years, our school community faced an unbelievable string of loss. We lost a beloved teacher or student every year for eight straight years, and in some years, we lost several. In one heartbreaking start to the school year, we lost three students in unrelated events within a three week period. With each passing, our crisis team became more practiced, we refined our response, and I shifted my thinking about crisis response and even how I identified a crisis. I hope to share these shifts with our leaders who find themselves off balance and unsure as they lead their communities through this uncertainty.
This is a Crisis - Name it
When a crisis comes packaged as an event, it is easier to recognize and ultimately manage. When they come slowly and our attention is diverted to other places like hospitals and neighborhood supermarkets, they are much harder to recognize. Leading from our kitchen table, with the media reporting from emergency rooms from around the nation, it is easy to feel as if schools are not in crisis; hospitals are. But if we shift just a bit, and define crisis differently, we may come to a different and actionable conclusion. A “Crisis” is any event which has, or has the potential to, destabilize a school community in a significant way. With our buildings closed, our students learning from home, and our teachers and leaders reinventing our educational system in a matter of days, this fits the bill. Defining something as a crisis does not mean that we should respond in an overly dramatic way; but it does mean that we should activate our best thinkers to collectively work toward re-establishing our “New Normal.”
Naming it a crisis is the first step to leading your community through it. The crises that we are most accustomed to are finite, sudden and in most cases, tragic events. What follows is the circling of helpers, all with their expertise, ready to put in place a plan to help the school community come to accept and thrive in the "New Normal." We are much slower to recognize and name destabilizing events that unfold over time and as such, we miss the opportunities to mobilize the helpers with the expertise so desperately needed. If you have not recognized this as a large-scale destabilizing event for your school community, it's time you do. Pull your crisis team in close and lean on their expertise, experience and perspective. Identify those who need support now and those who may need it in the future. Communicate as you would in a crisis, with regularity. Balance your strength and vulnerability. Take stock of your resources if you have not already, and be ready to deploy them in different ways now that they are likely home. Connect with and support your helpers most; you will need them as this event unfolds.
When Crisis Comes Slowly
Sadly, most school leaders have experience with helping their community through the loss of a beloved student, staff member or parent. Most leaders have reached out to parents who have suffered the unimaginable loss of a child and most have found a way to share this heartbreaking news with their school community. Most of us are forever changed as we are deeply touched by these experiences. As heartbreaking and challenging as these events are, in most cases, they can be defined and understood as discrete events. A child has lost their life; and now, somehow, we must attend to what feels like an infinite number of steps with care and sensitivity as we carefully guide our community safely through the complex and winding stages of grief all the while grieving ourselves.
There is a difference between managing a crisis and leading a community through it. As managers, we are called upon to take a series of critical steps; to check off those important boxes. The details are numerous and piled on top of our own feelings of loss, often feel crushing to school leaders. "Have we deactivated the deceased student in our student management system? Have we notified the library so as not to send a horribly insensitive late notice for an overdue book. Have we allerted transportation so the bus does not stop for a child who has passed?" These details and hundreds of others are important managerial steps indeed.
When faced with a crisis, it’s challenging but necessary to balance this management of details with big and complex questions that leaders ask. How can I instill the resolve and resilience in our children by modeling these attributes and making these things visible to them? How can I ensure that our community not only gets through this but gets through it stronger and more connected than we were going into it? How can I balance the strength necessary to inspire confidence in my community with the vulnerability they need to fully trust me as a leader? The more complex things get, the more leaders lean toward the predictability and comfort of their managerial checklist. Our growing edge as leaders in this event, will be defined as we grapple with these more prickly questions. As this crisis unfolds, let’s remind ourselves to find balance between management and leadership. Let’s resist the urge to lean toward the comfort of checking off managerial tasks while leaning away from the more ambiguous, complex, uncertain but vital work of leaders.
When Nothing Feels "Normal"
Most schools have now been shuttered and somehow, most remarkably and with little notice, our educators, parents, and students have reengineered our educational system. I’ve been inspired by the dedication of teachers who have worked tirelessly to ensure that students continue to learn. I am struck by the parents who have provided the structure, support and environment for children to continue their learning at home. I am struck by our leaders who had the vision and courage to prepare, launch and continue to support this new system. Our educators join our healthcare workers and first responders as the heroes of this pandemic. Of course, not to be outdone, our incredibly dedicated students have demonstrated the resilience, flexibility and perseverance needed to navigate through these uncharted waters.
We know that schools thrive on predictable rhythms and rituals; and school leaders are most often the keepers of these things. Like waves on the beach, schools run well and students thrive in systems that have a natural, predictable and rolling regularity. Buses roll in, the pledge is followed by morning announcements, morning meetings, specials, lunch and recess, packing up and buses rolling out. In between, our rituals like a theme of the month, joke of the day, or spirit days, make us feel part of a community learning and growing together. With our days upended, leaders are working hard to define new rhythms that work best for us and our families, while tinkering with new rhythms and rituals that may work in the distance learning environment. We're experimenting with virtual morning announcements, mid-day read-alouds, and even bedtime stories. We're working to establish new ways to connect with our key staff members and struggling to plan these things so they happen with the right frequency. What are your new waves on the beach? What predictable patterns and rituals will you establish and which will occur daily, weekly, or monthly?
These predictable patterns and rituals serve as the foundation of school culture and help our school community thrive; they ground children in uncertain times. The urgency with which we are establishing them needs to take top priority. For most communities, we are on the cusp of managing the loss of loved ones and in some cases, these losses will be significant. If we have yet to establish this "Normal" in the distance learning environment, it will be impossible to return to it as we lead our communities through. If I have but one piece of advice for leaders now, it is to lock in your “New Normal” and lock it in quickly! It is time to establish the rhythms and rituals as well-worn and familiar paths so you have them to return to like old friends, if and when your community is tragically touched by the impact of this pandemic. In many cases, you have days or, at most, weeks, to do so.
From Sprint to Marathon
By most accounts we’re in this for the long haul, yet it feels like we have paced ourselves for a sprint. Many of our routines are gone and the new ones feel unfamiliar as we work to establish a new rhythm for work and for life. For many of us, the new routines that we have adopted simply cannot be maintained over time. This new pace is unsustainable for many teachers and leaders. It's time to reflect on that pace and consider shifting to a gear that is more sustainable for a longer period of time and it’s time that we help those in our charge to downshift as well. We are running a marathon, not a sprint; and we are running it together. Prioritize spending quality time with your loved ones and to give yourself permission to pause, to recharge, and to ready ourselves for what will likely be more challenging times ahead. Encourage others around you to do the same by making your struggle visible to others and by giving them permission to do the same.
Many of us have been and will continue to be touched by this pandemic as we or people we care dearly for lose their jobs, fall ill and, in some cases, pass away. We are already hearing how this pandemic has impacted so many. This is a defining moment for our educational leaders; find comfort knowing that it is. Pull your best thinkers in close, and do your best thinking about how to strengthen your school community. Like many of you, as we work through this sad time, I find inspiration and hope in the selfless actions of so many. Thank you for leading during this challenging time. Thank you for sharing the best of yourselves as we face this uncertainty together. Although we remain socially distant, as leaders, let's pull in close and help each other lead through this together.
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